Initiating Creative Chaos

Forbes featured Asad J. Malik ’19—founder and head of 1RIC—this past fall after the exclusively Augmented Reality (AR) studio inked a seven figure investment deal. Forbes wrote, “New industries like XR are spheres where the rules of creation and participation are established in real time, and Malik recognized this early on in his career—producing holographic work like a Harry Potter HoloLens experience and Holograms from Syria in 2017 from his dorm room at Bennington College in Vermont. Through these experiences, he also launched 1RIC, an AR studio dedicated to holographic narrative content. In partnership with RYOT (Bryn Mooser ’01), 1RIC was the studio behind festival standouts Terminal 3 and A Jester’s Tale, the latter of which featured Poppy and was named the ‘Best Augmented Reality’ experience at Sundance by The Verge.” Speaking with Forbes, Malik shared that his studio, which includes Jack Daniel Gerrard ’18, Lead Engineer and Head of Sound at 1RIC, was not focused on commercializing as soon as possible but was more interested in creating high quality volumetric narratives and, as he puts it, “initiating creative chaos.” Forbes concluded, “By keeping 1RIC’s focus so narrow, Malik has become one of the world’s premier volumetric directors. As new technologies and updates roll out, 1RIC has a running start in using them not just as experiments, but as powerful narrative tools.” Stay tuned.